The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has revised its guidance for determining whether confirmed cases of COVID-19 qualify as recordable illnesses. Issued May 19, the guidance provides detail to enforcement requirements released in mid-March that construction industry groups and others criticized as being impractical for linking employee exposure to the disease with workplace activities.
Citing the nature of the disease and ubiquity of community spread, “in many instances it remains difficult to determine whether a COVID-19 illness is work-related, especially when an employee has experienced potential exposure both in and out of the workplace,” the guidance says.